Educating your children on safety rules can greatly add to thier well-being

  • Published
  • By 349th Air Mobililty Wing
  • 349 AMW

With the arrival of a new school year there are many new situations children may face.  Educating your children about general safety rules can greatly add to their physical and mental well-being. The most important resource in the educational process begins at home

  • Be sure your child knows his/her home phone number and address, your work number, the number of another trusted adult, and how to use 911 for emergencies.Make sure your child has change to make a phone call or carries a telephone calling card.
  • Plan a walking route to school or the bus stop.Choose the most direct way with the fewest street crossings and use intersections with crossing guards.Test the route with your child.Tell him or her to stay away from parks, vacant lots, fields, and other places where there aren’t many people around.
  • Teach children – whether walking, biking, or riding the bus to school – to obey all traffic signals, signs, traffic officers, and safety patrols.Remind them to be extra careful in rainy, foggy, or snowy weather.
  • Make sure they walk to and from school with others (a friend, neighbor, sibling).
  • When car pooling, drop off and pick up children as close to school as possible. Don’t leave until they have entered the school yard or building.
  • Teach your child never to talk to strangers or accept rides or gifts from strangers.Remember, a stranger is anyone you or your children don’t know well or trust.

For both children and parents, school bus safety is an important issue that is often overlooked. Below are a few simple tips that you can teach your children to help keep them safe around buses:

  • Arrive at the bus stop at least five minutes before the bus is scheduled to pick the children up.
  • Always stand four giant steps back from the curb.When lining up, make the line away from the street.
  • Never walk behind the bus.
  • If the children have to cross the street to access the door, teach them to take at least six giant steps forward on the sidewalk before turning to cross the street.That way, the children and the bus driver can see each other.
  • Teach children to look around them before they get on and off the bus, so as not to leave anything behind.
  • Make children aware of the straps on their book bags, as well as any drawstrings that might be hanging from their clothes.These can easily get caught in the door or railings, so children need to take care to keep them secure.
  • Tell children that if they do drop something near the bus, tell the driver BEFORE they do anything.It is important to make sure that the bus driver knows where they are at all times.

 

For more safety tips visit https://www.safety.af.mil/